After We Depart
by Little Blue Owl
Summary: This is a simple seven part drabble series focusing on different lives changed by the Tenth Doctor. This story is bittersweet, angsty, joyful, and romantic all rolled up into one. Enjoy!
1. Plagued

This was a plot bunny for over two months. Then two minutes of watching BBC America turned these bunnies into a story. This definitely isn't the best one, but better are coming, I promise.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the plots or characters from Doctor Who.

The TARDIS was lonely. For the millionth time, the Doctor considered that maybe it was too big.

That was the problem with always having somebody with him; when they left, he couldn't be alone. Sometimes he might just sit on the floor and shed a year, feeling the regeneration egging at him, waiting for him to finally change.

It was lonely in the TARDIS. And it wasn't as though he could just replace his companions; he had to happen upon them. So it remained lonely, floating out through all space and time. No matter how beautiful the planet or friendly the creatures, it would always be sad.

If only there could be another person by him, it would be cheeky grins and amazed eyes. They would take away his loneliness, make him feel well again. But there was not.

It would just be the Doctor and his memories, which didn't make him feel any better. No matter how hard he tried to cure it, he was plagued. Plagued by being alone.


	2. Together

AN: Fluffy, and perhaps slightly OOC, but I still kinda like it. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all its characters and plots aren't mine.

Mickey held Martha's hand lightly, and she grabbed back just as gently. Captain Jack rested his hand on Mickey's shoulder, and all three smiled as they stepped along.

The three walked across the park, chattering and laughing. They probably looked as strange as rough blue jeans amongst a row of tuxedos in their slightly tattered and odd clothing. But they didn't care.

They walked on until Captain Jack said he had to depart, bring small frowns to both Mickey and Martha's faces, but he said he'd meet them later.

Martha smiled, and thought about how much had changed in her life since she had left the Doctor the first time. She had been weak then, blinded by her silly crush. Now she was anything but, strong and smart, really and truly different.

Mickey thought similar things. But his related more to someone else rather than himself. He thought about Rose, and her giant grin and cheery laugh. But he knew that he was never meant for her, anyway, and he accepted that. She'd be happier with him, and that was all that Mickey wanted.

The pair stepped along the sidewalk, lined with beautiful green trees and stunning bright blue sky above them. After a while of talking, Martha claimed that she was hungry, and Mickey agreed. They ran around until they found a café, and took many detours along the way.

By the time they got there, they were both huddled in fits of laughter, and had never felt better in their whole lives. Now they were thinking the same thought.

They were made to be together.


	3. Opportunities

Opportunities

Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own Doctor Who or its characters or plots.

An: I've already written all of the chapters, so I'll post ASAP. R&R!

It had only been a few hours since he had been dropped off at Earth that Captain Jack was hungry for a new adventure.

This world was big enough, he was sure that there had to be some place in it that have for decent times, fighting villains and sailing through the sky.

Jack walked along the lightly populated streets, and the sweet freshness of serenity filled his nose. The little children played and their mothers and fathers laughed, and it was impossible not to grin from ear to ear when you watched them.

He kept walking, silently thinking to himself, and occasionally saying hello to a passing pedestrian or bicyclist.

It took him a full two weeks of spending time with Mickey and Martha eating at restaurants, going to the movies, and bowling along with dozens of other things to decide that he had made his choice about what to do here.

So he bought himself a plane ticket, and said his goodbyes and see-you-soon's.

He was going to New York City, and then Paris. He wasn't going to look for danger; he was taking opportunities. And if you saw him walking along the city streets, a certain pride in his stride and a half-smile on his face, you could tell that he was going to see the world. The one world that he had never explored.


	4. Always

Always

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or plots from Doctor Who.

AN: One of my favorite chapters, actually the first one I wrote. It's lovely depressing material. So enjoy, read, and review.

For the first few hours, although no one could tell, Sarah Jane Smith was trying as hard as she could not to cry. And who could have blamed her? One of the hardest things in life is losing someone you love.

But after a while, she realized that she had survived when she had to be without the first time. The second would be no different. After all, she had thought that she would never see him again then, and she knew it now.

Oh, the goodbye was so bittersweet. So utterly bittersweet. Seeing him once again made Sarah Jane's day, week, month, life. Just those precious moments they had shared she would surely hold close to her heart forever, and those times so many years before she would never, ever let go of.

But it was hard. Seeing him step back into his flying machine; walking down that familiar road to her home. But somehow, the road was different now. Now it felt complete- not that it hadn't before, but now there was something better about it.

Sarah Jane knew that one day it would all have to end, truthfully and finally. And she was glad that she got that extra gift of seeing him again, if only for a short while. But she was an adult now, and she knew she would live, with or without him.

But no matter where she went, Sarah Jane Smith would always be there for the Doctor, no matter what time, place, or regeneration.


	5. Different

Disclaimer: This (STILL) isn't mine.

AN: You have reached chapter five of seven. This is bombarding with sadness (a warning in advance) just like the one that follows. Enjoy, as I enjoyed writing this one.

Different

Donna Noble would periodically ask her mother where she was for those fourteen months. She would ask how she missed Lilian's birthday or Violet's wedding. Mrs. Noble always had the same response for her, though: she had been in a car wreck, and had fallen into a coma for those fourteen months.

Donna wasn't really sure why she kept asking. Maybe it was because she didn't remember the crash, or because she didn't believe that she had been in a coma for so long just from a wreck. Maybe it was because nobody in town had heard she had been in a car wreck, or how her mother would always slightly tense up at the question.

But mostly it was because this little tiny tidbit in her brain kept showing her strange images, of places that must have been dimensions away or creatures that should've been from Neptune. She wasn't frightened when she thought of these things, just sad.

One day in Winter as she sat on her couch, she thought these things, and tried to remember something, anything about those months. A tear dripped, as slowly as a sloth, climbing down her cheek. She didn't know why. But she felt happy, too.

Of course, very little of her time was spent worrying these things, and it was the small things that fought her off guard, like pinstripe suits and police boxes. She would point at it, red eyebrows furrowed, and for a moment, it was as though the words were on the tip of her tongue. But then it went away, and she was back to talking with her friends and doing temp work.

Sometimes she felt sad, sitting in her office desk, and she knew that she hadn't felt like that before the crash, and she might just start being thoughtful on a lonely car drive. And everyone could tell; there was definitely something different, small, but different, about Donna Noble after that "car crash".


	6. Far

Disclaimer: Doctor Who is not mine.

AN: This is my (and my editor-in-chief older sister's) favorite chapter. It is very sad and very sweet and I (as always) hope you wonderful readers like it.

Far

Every night, at exactly nine-thirty, Mr. Mott got out his telescope, and went up on the hill next to his house. He would put up a picnic blanket and gather some star charts, and place the telescope right on top of the cloth on that mound.

He would spend a long time up there, every single day; no matter if he was sick or going to be away, he would always get home to look in his telescope. Sometimes he would spend two hours outside, until a chattery Donna with a funny look on her face would see him, and her mother would tell him it was late, and that he should come inside.

Mr. Mott didn't really care that he had to go in. He knew that tomorrow, at exactly nine-thirty PM, he would be set up outside like a traveler in the desert. He would look in his telescope until it got late, and sometimes, he might even see a tiny blue dot and a bright white blinker float across the midnight plains.

He made sure not to miss one day, and he would always be there to make sure that little blue box didn't crash somewhere on a deserted island in the sky. You could taste the determination in Mr. Mott's eyes as he looked out his telescope at the universe above, at exactly nine-thirty each night. He would always be watching that blue box, no matter how far away.

And every day, just before nine thirty, the Doctor would think to himself, somewhere in the back of his mind, he would tell himself, 'He'll be watching; he always does.'


	7. Eternity

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, its characters or its plots.

AN: Here is the last chapter to conclude After We Depart. I'd like to thank everyone who read, favorited, followed, or reviewed. You are amazing. So here it is, the final chapter. Enjoy!

Eternity

It didn't take but a few days after the Doctor left that Rose Tyler realized that he wasn't coming back. It took a few more days for the sadness to wash away, and for her to realize that there was a Doctor right there with her.

Then she jumped on the opportunities.

"Have you ever been to France?" she asked him one day, completely out of the blue.

"A few times," the Duplicate said back. "But it was nice."

It didn't take long for Rose to buy two plane tickets to Paris. Whatever made the Doctor happy made her happy. So they spent their time together, eating, laughing, traveling, even dancing once or twice.

After two years, the girl who was in depression hadn't felt so good, so complete, since she had been with the real Doctor. They went all around the world, multiple times, and once, when they went to Paris, he said he had never been so happy in his entire long, long life.

The pair could see the world, get married, spent every second doing whatever they had always wanted to do, but didn't have the right person with them to do it.

They even visited Bad Wolf Bay every single year, taking Jackie and her father and the baby with them. They would just stand there and think, and then go back home. But this was the only time Rose experienced sadness.

Because finally, they would get their eternity together.


End file.
